Report: Fewer job cuts in San Diego to start 2013

San Diego County employers don't plan to hire more robustly early next year, but they don't plan to lay off as many people either.

That's according to a survey of 120 San Diego County employers, released this month by the staffing agency Manpower. The employers are surveyed each quarter, and are asked whether they plan to increase, decrease, maintain their staff levels, or if they don't know.

For the first quarter of 2013, 15 percent of San Diego County employers surveyed said they'd increase staffing, 9 percent said they would decrease staffing, and 71 percent said they would maintain their current level. Five percent were undecided.

For comparison, for the first quarter of 2012, 15 percent said they'd increase staffing, but 14 percent said they planned to reduce their number of workers, while 66 percent said they would maintain. Again, 5 percent were undecided.

"I think the message here is that the worst is over," said Phil Blair, CEO of Manpower San Diego. "To start growing jobs you’ve got to stop losing them. I think that’s the trend here."

Manpower computes a net employment index using the percentages from the survey. San Diego County's index for the first quarter of 2013 came out to 6 percent. A year ago it was 1 percent.

San Diego County's unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in October. Its November rate will be released Friday.

Nationally, Manpower surveyed 1,800 employers in 100 metropolitan areas. Altogether, 17 percent plan to add to their workforces, 8 percent expect to reduce their number of employees, 72 percent expect no change, and 3 percent were undecided. That's a net outlook employment total of 12 percent.